Make a box, representing with one side a housefront with two doors, and mount on one side of the turning-plate a man with an umbrella, and on the other a lady with a fan. When the man comes out it indicates damp, whilst the appearance of the lady foretels dry weather. Unfortunately, as the atmospherical changes affect it but by degrees, these weather prophets are unreliable.
THE DANCER ON AN INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN.
Mr. Panky’s friends, invited to his country seat, having admired a beautiful little dancer on the summit of a fountain-jet (page [137]), he no sooner has led them into the house than he points to a figure, much of the same appearance, which waltzes a few inches above the surface of his glass table. There is no visible cause.
Explanation.—The figure is made of a cone of silver-foil, the dress of silver-paper, and the head of the seed-vessel of the antirrhinum, which is extremely light and properly shaped. The base can be weighted with lead pellets to keep the head uppermost, and the whole dances on a current of air. A funnel of pasteboard, with the small end encircling the hole in the table, will catch the figure so that it must roll down into the proper place for an ascension again.
XVI. ELECTRICAL TRICKS.
THE CONTINUOUS CHIME.
Make a “dry pile” as follows:—Cut out of silver-paper used by fancy boxmakers, leaf zinc and writing-paper discs, of the same size, with a die or punch.
Dry the paper in a gentle heat, and arrange the whole in two well-dried glass tubes, beginning with the zinc, next silver-paper, paper side down, the writing-paper, the silver-paper as before, and so on. Cement in brass caps at one end of the tube, with screws to compress the pile, and fasten a second cap after the column is inserted. This secures the perfect metallic current.